Wisdom from last summer,

Last year, between May and December I read a lot. I also made the decision to document some of the more moving passages I found. I want to put these here. One quote from each book I wrestled with.

"There is enough love in this world for everybody, if people will just look."
-Cat's Cradle

"But most of all, above everything else, who in the Bible but Jesus knew - KNEW - that we were carrying the Kingdom of Heaven around with us, inside, where we're all too goddamn stupid and sentimental to look?"
-Franny and Zooey

"Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the overcompensation for misery. And, of course, stability isn't nearly as spectacular as instability. And being contented has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortune, none of the picturesqueness of a struggle against temptation, or a fatal over throw by passion or doubt. Happiness is never grand."
-Brave New World

"You risk tears if you let yourself be tamed."
-The Little Prince


"...when the point is there are times when the world is in flux and the right voice at the right time can move the world."
-Ender's Game

"The America I loved still exists at the front desks of our public libraries."
-A Man Without a Country

"Jesus was a living baby once. He went barefoot like we do in the summer."
-A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

"Everyone on earth has a treasure that awaits him."
-The Alchemist

"Its all like the ocean!" cried Dostoevsky. I say, its all like cellophane.
-Breakfast of Champions

It's true. Never a truer breath was ever breathed. "The Lord giveth," I say.
-As I Lay Dying

"Do your own bit of saving, and if you drown, at least die knowing you were headed for shore."
-Farenheit 451

"I wanted to be one of those people who have streaks to maintain, who scorch the ground with their intensity. But for now, at least I know such people, and they need me like comets need tails."
-Looking for Alaska

"Give us your hand. Look ahead. It is our own world, Golden One, a strange unknown world, but our own."
-Anthem

"to the person in the bell jar, black and stopped as a dead baby, the world itself is a bad dream."
-The Bell Jard

"Its living up to being happy that's the difficult part."
-The Time Traveler's Wife

"You said I killed you - haunt me then! Be with me always - take any form - drive me mad! Only do not leave me in this abyss where I cannot find you! Oh God, it is unutterable! I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!"
-Wuthering Heights (Oh Heathcliff...)

"Life is a gift horse, in my opinion."
-Nine Stories

And then from someone I have much to learn from, Stephen King, I have three wonderful quotes:

"I'd think, this isn't the way our lives are supposed to be going. Then I'd think, half the world has the same idea."

"Just remember... Dumbo didn't need the feather, the magic was in him."

"Writing is not life, but I think that sometimes it can be a way back to life."
-On Writing

And that's it. Seven months of acquired wisdom.